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I came to canada under a straining situation. I am American born, Lived in Colorado for 24 yrs. Yes i do miss it, but you know there are more important things in life. I have 2 beautiful daughters that where born here and I will not leave ( Even If I wanted too.) for years,years to come. I live in the EUP, and i find it harsh but worth the while to be included in the national population of Canada. Adam
There isn't much to see in Calgary but if you make it up here, shoot me a PM and the first round of beer will be on me
I've only been in Calgary for about a year now. Just about every time I have met someone new and tell them I moved here from California, they ask "why would you ever want to move here???"
With that said, lots of people here have encouraged me to visit Montreal. It sounds like an awesome city.
I have been hearing about the Calgary Stampede for years and years. I have even heard a couple of songs written about it. Have you been to the Stampede? Is it as fun as I've heard?
I have been hearing about the Calgary Stampede for years and years. I have even heard a couple of songs written about it. Have you been to the Stampede? Is it as fun as I've heard?
I went to Stampede in 2007. Some people find it to be a blast and others find it to be completely boring. It is a great time if you are into rodeos. If you aren't into rodeos, it is just like any other giant fair with exhibitions, food, rides, etc...
I went to Stampede in 2007. Some people find it to be a blast and others find it to be completely boring. It is a great time if you are into rodeos. If you aren't into rodeos, it is just like any other giant fair with exhibitions, food, rides, etc...
and ten days of public drunken-ness, free food, and partying. Especially if you work downtown.
I generally thought that Canadians were of the opinion that they were better then Americans.
To make a generalization, a lot of Americans think that Canadians are like the McKenzie's (Great White North), who do nothing but drink beer, play hockey and say eh a lot. Also, those Americans who know better (or didn't grow up with SCTV) sees Canada as being rather similar to America (obvious differences aside). The few cities in Canada that I have been to were so similar to American cities that it didn't 'feel' any different. Aside from the currency, Quebec City is the only place in Canada that I have been so far that actually felt like a foreign country.
Canadians in general tend to be happy to have america as its neighbour but also happy not to be in america because of health care, education costs (especially low in Quebec even at McGill), relative peace and less hardcore conservatism (its a liberal country even when the conservatives are in power, no creationism and pro life). But there is also a sense of jealousy.
On my part I love america, I only watch american tv shows, baseball and football. Would like to move there. Americans I met in NY and especially New Jersey were nice and it is not considered the nicest place in the country. I love US history, especially the civil war.
What is this thing about canadians saying eh? I see that in americans shows but never saw that and half of my friends speak only english.
What is this thing about canadians saying eh? I see that in americans shows but never saw that and half of my friends speak only english.
Come to think of it, I don't recall actually hearing it outside of television. Where the stereotype came from, I dunno--but Americans have been taught to believe that it is a very Canadian thing to say.
It is VERY common in Western Canada where we are. Or it's variation, "hey". Such as "It's cold out here today, hey?" Kind of like, saying "y' know?" at the end of a sentence.
There are also many many other sayings Americans wouldn't recognize...deke (fake out), poutine (a food dish), pi$$ed (for drunk, not meaning you're mad!), give 'er (let's go for it), serviette (napkin), decal (not a DE-cal, meaning sticker...they say deck-al), produce is pronounced praw-duce, hmmm, if I had more time I could think of a lot more. There is a cute ad that is in Canadian magazines that says something to the effect of "We speak your language" or something like that. When we first moved up here, I used to try to figure out what all those words meant. I'll have to see if I can come across it. Let me think on this one......
"Hydro" for electricity, as if all electricity were produced by dams (hydro-electrically), even if the electricity in question is or may be from a source other than water. Makes sense when so much of your electricity IS generated by dams!
"Let's get a two-fer" for "Let's get a case of beer" (24 bottles or cans per case = two-fer). (These were heavenly words during the grim, long decades before America started to brew good beer again.)
"A deck of smokes" vs. Americans' "a pack of cigarettes."
"Pogey"--or is spelled "pogie"?--pronounced "po-gee," with the "g" as in "gas," for riding on government largess. We used to use this in Buffalo not for collecting unemployment insurance, etc., as the Canucks did, but for grabbing onto the back bumper of a car in the snow and hitching a free haul by sledding along on your feet. Dangerous and dumb to do, but it did work if you kept your head low so the driver couldn't see you, you didn't get thrown off on the curves, and you didn't collapse from latching on over the tailpipe. Same idea, though, as in Canada: getting a free ride.
Your "shed-ule" is our "sKed-ule."
A phrase that a friend from Minnesota uses that he says Ontarians just north of his hometown also use: "Now we're loggin'" for "Now we've got our previously frustrated plan working well." As in getting your boat unstuck from the mud or pushing your way through an overgrown portage trail. "There's the lake--now we're loggin.'"
"Portage." Americans would say "Trail." As in, "We've got to haul our stuff down this trail to get from this lake to that lake," while Canadians would say "We've got to portage from here to there" or "There's a four-mile portage coming up." Also, Americans tend to pronounce "portage" as a very unFrench-sounding "port-age," with "-age" pronounced as in "edge" or "idge" and the stress on the "port." = "PORT-idge."
"Tronno" or "Taranna" for Toronto. Our equivalent: "Nyawk" for New York, or "Nawluns" for New Orleans. Or "Missoura" for Missouri and "MisSIPi" for Mississippi and "Kralina" for Carolina.
Americans from the upper Midwest call soda pop "pop," as most Canadians do (I gather). But many Americans from elsewhere call it "soda." Yet in some parts of the States, especially the upper South (Missouri, Arkansas), "soda" means an ice-cream soda. To most Canadians, though, "soda," if it means anything at all, means what Americans would call not "pop," but seltzer water or club soda.
Canadians tend to call walleye "pickerel" (more often "pickral"), and call true pickerel--well, I don't know what. (The walleye is "dore" in Quebec, I understand, from d'ore, golden.) Then again, I've heard Americans and Canadians both call smallmouth bass "green bass" or "bronze bass," and largemouth bass "black bass." And then there's the white bass, which isn't even a bass at all, on both sides of the border. And the crappie--pronounced "croppie" on both sides off the border--is sometimes called a "speckled bass" or even a "spotted bass," though it too isn't a bass. And "northern pike," "jack pike," "northern," "pike," "pike perch," "jack fish"--a lot of these are applied to the same specie--usually the northern pike-- differing from local region to local region.
What's a "sunfish" to Canadians and Americans from the northern & eastern states, or maybe, more specifically, a "blue-gill," is a "bream" (pronounced "brim") to Americans from Virginia on southward. A much-favored "bream" down South is the "shell-cracker," though the "red-ear" is popular too. And the north's very beautiful little "pumpkinseed" sunfish is too rare down South to be much known here.
What's a "rockbass" to Canadians and Americans from the northern states is a "goggle-eye" to Southerners.
"Washroom" and "lavatory" are "bathroom" to us, unless we're painfully trying to be super-polite or pretentious.
What you call a "cottage" would be a "cabin" to us. Though in some parts of the country, including my home area of western upstate NY, we'd call your "cottage" a "camp," as in, "He's going to camp this week." Which is different from going "camping." "Camping" is pitching a tent, while "camp" is where you have your cabin. (Probably comes from the old custom of having a "fishing camp" or "hunting camp.")
Your "metro" is our subway.
We live in "America," but to you, we're from "The States." Generally, only those Americans who know that saying "We're American, and you North American Canadians aren't American at all--you're Canadian" can be offensive refer to "America" as "The States."
In America, you go "to the hospital" or you're "in the hospital," but in Canada you go "to hospital" or you're "in hospital."
What many Americans call a "jon boat"--a fairly narrow, flat-bottomed row boat of 10-16 ft. length that you can put a small outboard or an electric motor on--Canadians seem to call a "row boat." To Americans, "row boat" would specifically mean a boat that has oars on it and is actually rowed, not engine-powered.
And then there are your words & phrases that simply aren't familiar to Americans. Not because of pronunciation differences, but just because we don't have those words & phrases.
"Zed" for what we call "the letter zee." ("Zed" always made me think of "The Beverly Hillbillies'" Jed Clampitt doing zen. Or Jethro getting into something he's been growing alongside the corn and calling on his uncle for munchies.)
"Loonies" for the $1 coin and "Toonies" for the $2 coin. (I wonder: Did Canada ever have its version of our "greenbacks," "saw-buck," and "double saw-buck" tradition? Or our "cabbage" and "lettuce" for money too? Or "big ones" or "large" for thousands, as in "That car cost Ted 20 large"?)
"Hogtown" for Toronto. I understand why, but it always seemed kind of strange. Compared to most American cities, Toronto is immaculate. Then again, we call viciously violent Philadelphia "The City of Brotherly Love."
"Poutine"--which I've seen only once. French fries covered in cheese and gravy. Yes, Americans eat this, but I've never heard it given an actual name. It's more something that happens on your plate when you're a bit sloppy, or something that individuals slop together for themselves, or what your kid or your drunk uncle generate on their plate by fumbling with their forks, than a formal dish. What I've seen more commonly in Canada are the fries with gravy or served with vinegar, sometimes called, English-style, "chips." To us, "chips" are, of course, potato chips and, maybe, a shortened version of corn chips. And I've never seen an American put vinegar on his French fries unless he learned how good that combination is from visiting Canada or from seeing a visiting Canuck do it.
"Toque" for woolen knit winter cap. In America, that would be called "hat," or, at most, "woolen knit winter cap."
"Riding" for what we'd call a legislative/electoral district.
"Escarpment" for what we'd call a ridge, ridgeline, or cliff. I know that "escarpment" is a more accurate term, but only our geologists would call an escarpment an escarpment.
"Hoser" for a rustic, bumbling clown, dolt, buffoon, or just a goofy friend who's easy to tease, and who may be out to mooch something and may even have morally iffy qualities beyond the mooching. In America we'd say "klutz," "loser," "dope," "dumbass," or "clown," and if he's really "country" then "hillbilly," "redneck," or "bubba." Or, as is now enshrined in our Constitution, the all-purpose slouch-word "DUDE."
Vive le differance, eh!?
Last edited by homeward bound; 03-11-2008 at 05:06 PM..
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Something like that
